Surf Report: Hurricane swells are a case of too much, too little

8:59 AM,
Sep. 24, 2012

Written by

Roy Harrell

Last week's Nadine swell brought some overdue surf to Delmarva. It also brought frustration for a few surfers, depending on where and when they timed and planned their counter strike. Part of the problem is the prevailing attitude that a hurricane swell is a must-surf affair, when in fact it's often a case of too much energy for our beaches to adequately handle.

Most of us get our wave information from NOAA buoy No. 44009 or a swell-forecasting model that relies on buoy data. Most of us have figured out by now that very short-period energy in the four, five and six categories is generally wind slop ...